Rural farmers are smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to the use of hybrid seeds. The seed was provided by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to improve yields.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Murewa farmer Clamence Mazarura told a delegation that comprised CIMMYT and foreign agricultural experts visiting farmers using hybrid seeds that yields had improved after he started using the seeds.
“This maize seed produces good maize and gives maize that is really good. During dry spells these maize crops are good and better than the traditional maize.
“Traditional maize is cheaper in planting than these hybrids, but comes at the expense of losing part of your maize crop.
“When I plant this hybrid maize, I get maximum yield compared to using traditional maize,” he told Standardbusiness during the tour.
“When I was growing traditional maize, I would get less tonnage from it making at least four tonnes per hectare.
“But, now with the way I am growing these hybrid crops, I can get seven tonnes per hectare.
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“When I sell it I get a lot of money compared to what I used to get.”
Before the use of hybrid seed, Mazarura used to get $700 for his maize crop. In the 2016/17 season, his income rose to $4 500, enough to cater for his needs.
Mazarura is one of the many farmers in Murewa working with CIMMYT in the organisation’s hybrid maize programme meant to improve food security and income for small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe.
This is being done by having small-scale farmers grow hybrid maize which results have shown increases yields, something the the African Agriculture Technology Fund is also doing in other parts of the country.
Murewa Township Council district crop and livestock agricultural officer Douglas Makuvira said the centre is home to over 60 000 households with 44 000 relying on farming for income and food.
In Murewa, government subsidies provide over 32 000 households with support in the form of one 50kg bag of maize, ammonium nitrate fertiliser and seed to plant.
Murewa district administrator Wadzawanya Gumbirai said agriculture was the main source of income for people in the area.
“I know you will be able to appreciate a lot how our communities have adapted and adopted the many seed varieties,” she said.
In Chiweshe village, Honest Musafare Chiweshe is also growing hybrid maize.
At 68 years, Chiweshe is no longer in a position to work and solely relies on his farming for food and income to support his family.
Unlike Mazarura, Chiweshe uses a unique hybrid maize variety bred from maize genes that allow for intercropping with legumes, which he grows using pigeon and cow peas as well as jack beans.
“Our soil has been deteriorating, producing very poor yields, so the minute I started working with CIMMYT they encouraged us to do this intercropping exercise,” he said.
“After starting this intercropping exercise, we can see that our crops are now healthy and we are expecting to harvest more than over the previous years.
“This year I am expecting about nine to 10 tonnes including my experiment with CIMMYT using the seed variety crops.
“The income I used to get was very little to an extent that I had given up farming as a business. I used to get something like $500, now, last year with CIMMYT I got $900 from two and a half tonnes and this year I am expecting something almost $4 000.”
Chiweshe expects the tonnage to further grow when he gradually spreads maize to the rest of his crop.
The science behind this particular maize hybrid is that the specific legumes release into the ground through the roots, rhizobia, a nitrogen-fixing bacterium that captures nitrogen in the atmosphere and converts it to fertiliser.
The fertiliser then feeds into the maize plant while at the same time increasing the soil’s fertility.
Instead of buying a 50kg bag of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for $39, farmers such as Chiweshe can make savings by relying on fertiliser created by the legumes.
CIMMYT senior scientist Peter Setimela said they usually advise farmers to practice crop rotation so that the grain can benefit from soil where legumes had previously grown.
“Legumes like pigeon peas, beans and all that have in the roots what we call rhizobia and that rhizobia catches the nitrogen in the atmosphere and then converts it into fertiliser so that is why we are intercropping.
“It actually produces its own nitrogen otherwise if we do not have that we have to apply artificial fertiliser,” he said.
“For example, you can go to the other areas and buy fertiliser but instead of buying the fertiliser you can plant these crops (legumes) that then generate their own fertiliser.
“You can apply little bit (of artificial fertiliser) although they may not be much in the first year but at least they add some fertiliser.”
The intercropped maize was an early maturing crop.
Another type of hybrid being grown in Murewa is vitamin A rich maize whose seed specially modified to include vitamin A nutrients in the maize plant.
Vitamin A has multiple functions, namely, growth and development, the maintenance of the immune system and good vision.
In the Gatsi Village in Bandakamwe Ward (Ward 11), 57-year old Thomas Mutegade has been growing the vitamin A rich maize on an acre of his one hectare piece of land since the start of the current season.
“I am expecting approximately two 50kgs or two and a half 50 kg bags,” he said.
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation and CIMMYT found that the hybrid maize increases crop yields by 20%.
“I think it would have paid me more than the previous season but it is a small piece of land that I have planted the maize for this season.
“I am expecting a bigger tonnage compared to before.
“When I used to plant on the whole land, I used to get two tonnes but if I plant the whole field now with this maize I can get three or four tonnes.” .
At today’s prices, his three or four tonnes would translate to over $1 400, enough for his family.
